Grand Ayatollah Marja (; plural ''marājiʿ''; ) is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah (a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated) to make legal decisions within the confines of Sh ...

Muhammad Is'haq Fayadh (also spelt Fayad), (, ) is one of the Big Four, among the most senior

Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...

marja living in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

after

Ali Sistani Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (; born 4 August 1930) is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza of Najaf in Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of Ir ...

Biography

Born in Jaghori Soba village in

Ghazni province Ghazni (; ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 Districts of Afghanistan, districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

to Hazara ethnic group, he holds Afghan citizenship. His family was farmers and he started learning the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

from the village cleric when he was five. When he was 10 his family moved to

Najaf Najaf is the capital city of the Najaf Governorate in central Iraq, about 160 km (99 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam an ...

, where he studied various

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

including

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

Islamic philosophy Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...

, the

Hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

and

Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

, eventually studying under

Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim Musawi Khoei ( ; (; ; November 19, 1899 – August 8, 1992) was an Iranian Shia marja'. Khoei is considered one of the most influential twelver scholars. After the death of Muhsin al-Hakim in 1970, he became ...

. When al-Khoei died in 1992 he supported

Ali al-Sistani Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (; born 4 August 1930) is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza of Najaf in Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of ...

as the chair of the marjaiya in Najaf.Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Ishaq Fayyad
, ''Encyclopedia of Modern Middle East Wars'' (republished), 27 January 2009 Under

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

he adopted a quietist approach, avoiding politics and confrontation with the government. Following the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

by the United States and allies in 2003, al-Fayyad engaged more than any other marja with the occupying American and British military and diplomats, informing them of the views of the senior clerics. He adopted similar positions to al-Sistani and the other marjaiya: supporting a united Shiite slate for the first Iraqi elections; calling for Islam to be the sole source of Iraqi law; supporting a yes vote in the

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

; rejecting a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

Iraq; and opposing the adoption of doctrine of the

Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (, also ''Velayat-e Faghih''; ) is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law which holds that until the reappearance of the "infallible Imam" (sometime before Judgement Day), the religious and social affairs ...

as adopted by the

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. However, of all the marja'iyya Fayyad is reported to be the biggest opponent of the concept of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists. However, this report is contradicted by the official website of the Shi'a Marja, wherein he remarks, "The correct opinion regarding the issue of "Vilayat-e-Faqih" (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) is that this issue requires no external proof, because the continuation of

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

, and its application, is dependent upon the continuation of the system of Vilayat". He continues, "The vilayat of the Prophet and the immaculate Imams, and in the time of the major occultation of the 12th Imam, the Islamic Jurist is bestowed with this vilayat ... It is unimaginable that Islamic Law could continue to exist without the continuation of this vilayat". Furthermore, he is one of the

Ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

signatories of the

Amman Message The Amman Message () is a statement calling for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world that was issued on 9 November 2004 (27 Ramadan 1425 AH) by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, and his advisor Sheikh Izz-Eddine Al-Tamimi. The messa ...

, which gives a broad foundation for defining Muslim orthodoxy.Al-Fayyad's official reply to Amman Message
/ref> He has written some books on Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic politics, and Islamic banking. A very innovative position of him is written in his book on women's role in society with the title 'Jāyegāh Zan dar Nizām Siyāsīyeh Islām' (English title: 'The position of women in the Islamic political system'). In 2007, press reports indicated that he was supervising the religious studies of the radical cleric

Muqtada al-Sadr Muqtada al-Sadr (; born 4 August 1974) is an Iraqi Shia Muslim cleric, politician and militia leader. He inherited the leadership of the Sadrist Movement from his father, and founded the now dissolved Mahdi Army militia in 2003 that resisted ...

Positions

Socio-political role of women in Islamic societies

Grand Ayatollah al-Fayadh is one of the few Islamic Shia Ayatollahs who are in favor of women in positions of political leadership. In June 2018 an article was written on a Persian website, which was later translated into English. There the Islamic position of Ayatollah al-Fayadh concerning the position of women in Islamic society was discussed, citing his book 'Jāyegāh Zan dar Nizām Siyāsīyeh Islām' (English title: 'The position of women in the Islamic political system') on that subject. "In response to some jurisprudential questions concerning the role of women in society, he declared it permissible for women to take any of the three following positions: political leader, judge and religious jurisconsult." The article continues to explain al-Fayadh' opinion concerning women and the different positions they can take in society: "It is irrespective of whether this is a social position like politics or an individual one like being a driver, a pilot, etc. With this reasoning he believes that in all spheres of life, be it social, individual, ideological, freedom of expression, business, financial trading, land cultivation, etc. women and men are completely equal."

References

External links

Official Arabic WebsiteOfficial Farsi WebsiteDownload site of his online books in English, Arabic and Farsi''Slate'' profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fayadh, Muhammad Afghan emigrants to Iraq Afghan Shia Muslims Afghan grand ayatollahs Iraqi people of Hazara descent Hazara religious leaders 1930 births Living people People from Najaf Iraqi grand ayatollahs 20th-century Islamic religious leaders 21st-century Islamic religious leaders Iraqi people of Afghan descent

Biography

Positions

Socio-political role of women in Islamic societies

See also

References

External links